Overheating ??

[jablonec1963]

I have a 1952 super. Right after a drive, when the car is parked and the engine off, the temperature gauge starts to rise and I can hear the water boiling in the engine and at times it blows over . Any help would be appreciated.

RV

[Guest]

We have a free 1950 buick group below, join the club!

You need to get your raditor boiled out, spend the $100 bucks, and don't use the garden hose.

The car is retaining heat as you drive, and it cannot keep up.

Also, if you have a dynoflow, your tranny maybe adding to your heat problem, and an extra cooler under the car might be your second step.

[Guest invicta592]

Try the cheapest things first. Prime suspect is the thermostat. If its jammed shut, no water will circulate and boiling will occur. If thats not jammed a new radiator cap is worth a shot. Any loss of pressure from the cap will cause boiling to occur very rapidly.

Cars inc list thermostats @ £9.25 and replacement rad caps at 29.50 for "correct" style and £7.75 for a "non-correct" one.

Better to try them and have cheap, practical spares in the garage than do the expensive work first, just to find it didn't cure the fault!

Good Luck

[JohnD1956]

You may have a few other easily curable problems.

Inspect the radiator core for debris. If it is not rotted or deteriorated, blow compressed air back from the engine side to the front through the fins around the tubes.

Also check your timing.

Lastly while cool drain enough antifreeze so you can see the top area inside the radiator. If it has debris inside that is blocking the openings in the tubes, consider having the radiator disassembled and rodded to clean it out BUT then look for a radiator filter to prevent clogging it up again from the debris in the engine.

There is a nice unit from Tony Gentlicore in Austrailia, which he sells very reasonably priced, shipped to your door. I put one on my 56 after clogging my brand new radiator and I was surprised by the continuing amount of scale I get out of that engine. The nice thing about Tony's unit is it has a servicible screen that can be pulled out without any disassembly and washed.

Eventually I will pull that off as I am getting less and less debris, and just have to replace my upper hose.

JD

[Charles2]

The Buick straight eight engine is prone to accumulating a lot of scale and sludge around the water jackets of cylinders seven and eight. In several cars I've seen, water circulation around these cylinders was virtually nonexistant because of the impacted sludge. This collection will reduce cooling and cause "flash" boiling similar to what happens in a coffee percolator. To remove the crud, you need to remove the cylinder head and the soft plugs along the side of the engine and; using wires, screwdrivers and high pressure water, clear this blockage.

Start with the easy stuff first. Check the thermostat, hoses, water pump and radiator; you should do this routinely anyway. If that solves the problem, great! But, the boiling-on after you shut the engine off and especially the "geyser" effect sounds, to me, an awful lot like a good case of impacted sludge around numbers seven and eight. Incidentally, the cooling system cleaning chemicals available won't even touch this stuff nor will even the most aggressive water flushing. Good luck with it.

[Guest strait8]

[color:\\"red\\"] I had the same overheating you have .I pulled the head and frost plugs and after a lot of digging with stiff heavy wires bent to go between cylinders at rear I was able to clear the water jackets.While I was at it I had the core in the radiator replaced with a 4 tube one heres my car.

[don40supercpe67riv]

[color:\\"red\\"] Maybe it's the weather and not the car!!!!

[Guest BernieDaily]

Make sure you are not driving with the brakes on. Dragging brakes can cause real mysterious overheating and performance problems. I have seen cooling systems overhauled, engines rebuilt, and boiling transmission fluid due to the need of a brake job.

The front of my garage has a slight pitch for draining. When I bring in a car to check I stop and put the car in neutral. Then I open the door and push it backwards with my foot. If it resists rolling I have a good idea that the brakes need some kind of attention.

Bernie